Santa Barbara MTD Expands Bus Service Ahead of School Year

Santa Barbara Metropolitan Transit District (SBMTD) announced a number of changes ahead of the 2023 school year, including connecting two lines in Western Goleta and a new express freeway bus line between Santa Barbara City College and Carpinteria.

SBMTD Planning and Marketing Manager Hillary Blackerby announced the changes Thursday, outlining the new services and the start dates for each. 

Starting Monday, August 14, MTD will update the routes for Line 23 (El Encanto Heights) and Line 25 (Ellwood/Winchester Canyon) to connect and cross the 101 freeway. Now the 23 will become the 25, and vice versa, “to provide riders a one-seat ride through Western Goleta, no matter the direction,” Blackerby said.

Also on August 14, there will be “minor changes” to Line 6 (Goleta), Line 11 (UCSB), and Line 20 (Carpinteria). On August 21, MTD will begin to phase in the annual Booster Service Routes to K-12 schools in the city, with a few changes to junior high and high schools, which are noted on the MTD website. 

On August 28, in one of the biggest new developments in public transit, MTD will begin offering an express Line 19x service to Carpinteria. While there has been a Line 20 to Carpinteria for years, the express bus will take three trips a day on the freeway directly from Milpas Street to Carpinteria and back.

The two routes were “long requested by the riding public,” and the three trips are scheduled during peak hours: two northbound “a.m. peak” trips, one midday round trip, and two southbound “p.m. peak” trips, with the northbound route from Carpinteria, through Santa Barbara’s Eastside to the SBCC campus.

The Line 19x will run Monday through Friday in sync with SBCC’s semester schedule (the line will not run on school holidays, winter, or spring breaks).

Then on September 25, when UCSB is scheduled to begin its fall quarter, MTD will increase its weekday service for the Line 28 UCSB Shuttle to ensure there will be a new bus every 18 minutes.

To view all changes, follow @santabarbaramtd on Instagram or visit sbmtd.gov.